TBH: Sun Harvest

Welcome to the Tarot Blog Hop!

Arwen Lynch of Tarot by Arwen was our wrangler this time around, prompting us with the theme, the Sun Harvest. She asks what harvest we’d like to bring in before fall.

Sun Harvest

8 of Coins, 3 of Coins, 6 of Cups, and XIX The Sun from Legacy of the Divine Tarot by Ciro Marchetti, published by Llewellyn 2009.

Our topic for this round of the tarot blog hop is “The Sun Harvest.” We were asked to share what we wanted to harvest before the fall. This topic came together for me from a couple angles. I have in mind something creative I would like to achieve, so I guess we’ll find out by fall if I succeed! But it got me thinking of the sun harvest in terms of creativity as opposed to harvesting crops. So for this blog, I thought it would be interesting to explore tarot cards that relate to creativity.

The sun is in the sign of Leo now. This sign is associated with a strong sense of self, of being comfortable in the spotlight, of being seen. The sun itself, which rules this sign, is about the self, authenticity, shining your light, letting you be you. So it seems appropriate for this mid-summer blog hop to shine the light on cards that encourage self expression. I chose four cards to focus on: the Eight of Pentacles, the Three of Pentacles, the Six of Cups, and the Sun.

Eight of Pentacles

The Eight of Pentacles corresponds to the first one-third of the sign Virgo and is ruled by the Sun. As a Virgo card, it addresses routines. In terms of creativity, this card is for making your creative efforts a part of your daily habits. It’s about studying, practicing, and drilling yourself. When the Eight of Pentacles comes up in a reading for creativity, it stresses the need to find the time every day to work toward your goal. Playwright and novelist Somerset Maugham is reported to have replied, when asked if he wrote daily or waited for inspiration to strike, “I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.” If it’s important, do it. Do it every day. Do it badly if that’s all there is. You’ll get better, not due to your talent, but because you’re doing it.

Three of Pentacles

3 of Pentacles from Robin Wood Tarot by Robin Wood, published by Llewellyn, 1991.

The Three of Pentacles represents the middle third of the sign of Capricorn, ruled by Mars. Mars is exalted in Capricorn. That means that all of the drive and motivation of Mars find their footing in Capricorn and are directed towards an ambitious level of productivity. The Three of Pentacles represents your highest level of skill and talent. It is your ability to excel in your field of endeavor. If the Eight of Pentacles is practicing, then the Three of Pentacles is the public performance, the recital, the big game. It’s your chance to show off.

Clarifying A Qabalistic Approach to the Three and Eight of Pentacles

The qabalistic Tree of Life

The qabalistic Tree of Life is a glyph that symbolically expresses the process of creation. Above the Tree is the Divine. The circle labeled “1” is the first emanation of the Divine, or the first level of energy that flows from the Divine that we can perceive. One is the perfection of Divine Unity, which is beyond our capacity for understanding. The energy flows down through the ten marked stages, arriving at completed manifestation at the circle numbered “10.” Ten is the everyday world around us. Each numbered step in between represents spiritual energy losing its abstract perfection but gaining solidity in the real world.

When addressing the qabalistic meaning, some tarot readers consider the Eight of Pentacles to represent a higher level of achievement than the Three of Pentacles. Their rationale is that because the Eight is closer to complete achievement at Ten, that it indicates a greater level of accomplishment. However, this is a misunderstanding of the qabalistic symbolism.

One is the first emanation from the Divine. It is the sphere closest to Spiritual Unity and the perfection of God. Ten is the furthest away from the Divine, at the most material level. Any creative process is more perfect when closer to the Divine, but achieves more solidity and completeness as it works its way down into manifestation. The suit of pentacles corresponds to the World of Manifestation and the element earth, so they are more concrete, more formed, than the other suits.

The Three of Pentacles is the circle marked “3,” in the World of Manifestation, or earth. Circles 1, 2, and 3 are the three supernal spheres and are considered to be above the Abyss, an imaginary line above circles 4 and 5 and below 2 and 3. All three of the spheres above the Abyss are aspects of Divine Unity. In the World of Manifestation, the Three partakes of Divine inspiration. The Eight is further away from the Divine. Although more manifest, more complete, it has stepped away from and lost a degree of its connection to Divine Perfection. (Learn more about qabalah and the tarot here.)

The Three of Pentacles represents artistry, mastery, and inspired work. The Eight of Pentacles represents productivity, apprenticeship, and technical proficiency.

Six of Cups

Six of Cups from DruidCraft Tarot by Stephanie Carr-Gomm, Philip Carr-Gomm, Will Worthington, published by Connections 2005.

Because the Six of Cups often shows children playing or interacting, it is frequently associated with childhood. This further leads to the concept of memory. This card is associated with the middle third of the sign of Scorpio, ruled by the Sun. As a Scorpio card, this idea of memory can go deep, private, into the hidden secrets of a person. But the Sun always shines its light, even in these dark corners. In terms of creativity, the Six of Cups usually represents something imaginative or creative that was done as a child or youth. But for whatever reason, this creative outlet was stashed away, hidden, possibly even repressed. When I get the Six of Cups for a client asking about connecting with their truth, I ask them what childhood pleasure they could resurrect.

The Sun

The Sun from 1JJ Swiss Tarot by Stuart Kaplan published by AGM-Urania, 1970.

As a Major Arcana, the Sun card is not associated with a one-third section of an astrological sign, but in this case corresponds to one of the planets, appropriately, the Sun. The Sun is in the center of the solar system and all the planets revolve around it. Hellenistic astronomers were some of the early observers to identify the Sun as the center of the solar system, and even before Copernicus resurrected this early model, many philosophies at the time of the introduction of the tarot cards saw the star the Sun as central, and declared that the Sun was in the middle of the heavens like the King is in the middle of the kingdom and the heart is in the middle of the body. The Sun represents something that is central, core, essential. It is the heart of who we are. Because the Sun sheds light, it is about letting our light shine, not hiding it under a bushel. The Sun represents accomplishment and success, so it’s not just about being quirky for the sake of being quirky. Rather, the Sun lets us not only be who we are, but be the best us we can be.

Your Sun Harvest

Where are you in your harvest of your own creativity? Have you plumbed the depths of the Six of Cups to find your unique childhood talents and interests? Are you following the Eight of Pentacles’ advice to practice every day to increase your proficiency? Are you connected to the Divine for inspiration and artistry as recommended by the Three of Pentacles? Have you achieved the Sun Harvest, the realization of your utterly unique you-ness and shined it on all who come within your orbit to both reveal your truth while also inspiring revelation in others? Some of these you might already do well. Some you might find more difficult. My challenge to you is to find one of these approaches to creativity that is not your usual one and work to accomplish it before our fall blog hop. I’d love to hear your thoughts, goals, and plans in the comments!

Please use the links below or at the top of this post to visit our other bloggers and hear their tarot interpretations of harvest plans!

Joy Vernon is widely recognized by tarot professionals as an expert tarot teacher and respected community leader. With over twenty years’ experience teaching energetic and esoteric modalities, Joy brings expertise and practiced familiarity to her specialty of esoteric tarot, which layers astrological and qabalistic symbolism onto the traditional tarot structure. Under her leadership, the Denver Tarot Meetup has grown into one of the largest and most active tarot-specific meetups in the world. Joy works as a tarot reader, astrologer, and teacher at Isis Books. To learn more, please visit JoyVernon.com.

I love how the Tree of Life made an appearance in this, it is something I have long had a fascination and connection with but its strange how in some of the variations I have seen the 1 is at the bottom and the 10 is at the top, but here its reversed. I love the diversity in tarot and also the lore of the Kabbalah 🙂 A pleasure as always to read your thoughts <3

Thank you, Jay! Qabalah and tarot is one of my favorite topics! I’ve been studying qabalah for more than a dozen years (gosh, really over 20 years if you count the first book on the subject I truly read and made a detailed study of) and have put a lot of study and meditation into the symbols. I find it so helpful not just for understanding tarot but for understanding life. And there’s so much depth to it there’s always more to explore. Curious, though, I’ve never seen the “1” at the bottom! 🙂 Always more to learn and always a fascinating journey!

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